At the beginning of his career, Philip K. Dick, whose later work won him
widespread acclaim as the world’s greatest science fiction writer,
wrote a number of short novels which were published as paperback
originals back-to-back in dual volumes with works by writers who were
then more famous. Considerably more straightforward than his later
novels, these stories are nevertheless unmistakably the work of the
author of DO ANDOIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP? and UBIK in their quirky
exuberance and originality.THE MAN WHO JAPED: Following a devastating
nuclear war, the Moral Reclamation government took over the world and
forced its citizens to live by strictly puritanical rules - no
premarital sex, drunkenness, or displaying of neon signs - all of which
are reinforced through a constant barrage of messaging to the public.
The chief purveyor of these messages is Alan Purcell, next in line to
become head of the propaganda bureau. But there is just one problem: a
statue of the government’s founder has been vandalized and the head is
hidden in Purcell’s closet. VULCAN’S HAMMER: After the 20th century’s
devastating series of wars, the world’s governments banded together into
one globe-spanning entity, committed to peace at all costs. Ensuring
that peace is the Vulcan supercomputer, responsible for all major
decisions. But some people don’t like being taken out of the equation.
And others resent the idea that the Vulcan is taking the place of God.
As the world grows ever closer to all-out war, one functionary
frantically tries to prevent it. But the Vulcan computer has its own
plans, plans that might not include humanity at all.DR. FUTURITY: When
Dr Jim Parsons wakes up from a car accident, he finds himself in a
future populated almost entirely by the young. But to keep the world run
by the young, death is fetishized, and those who survive to old age are
put down. In such a world, Parsons - with his innate desire to save
lives - is a criminal and outcast. But for one revolutionary group, he
may be just the saviour they need to heal and revive their cryogenically
frozen leader. And when he and the group journey to 1500s California,
what they find causes them to question what they know about history and
the underpinnings of their society.